Lisa managed to fit one rescheduled interview in for Danny before he left for the day, it was with the official magazine for their touring car association. The journalist, Chris Pathon, was highly respected within the racing community because of his no bullshit approach to stories. There was times he pushed a few buttons to get a reaction but in general his reporting was top notch and accurate.

Although Chris did bring up the incident with Fittzy and pushed several different ways for Danny’s reaction to both Fittzy’s driving and his penalty it was done in a reasonable way and Danny didn’t feel pressured by the questioning. He had been prompted before the interview, by Lisa, that the question would come up and how to answer it, but as usual he ignored such a request and did things his own way.

Unlike other times where he would have gotten annoyed at the questions and responded with the anger Danny simply ignored the question in the hope that it went away, but after a few attempts he knew that wasn’t going to happen so he simply answered it in as few words as he could. It wasn’t a blow out, even if it wasn’t exactly how Lisa had wanted it to go down, and he was able to get his point across without any negative words against Fittzy, so even if Lisa didn’t feel entirely happy with the way he handled it, he did.

The interview lasted nearly an hour, a length Danny rarely did with any other reporter, and Danny knew when he left the media room that whatever he said would be quoted fairly and accurately and that was why he was happy to spend that kind of time with Chris Pathon.

From the media room Danny took a detour via the workshop and Rick’s work area on his way to his office. They chatted for a few minutes about the car and how Rick’s day was progressing, they chatted about Danny’s interview and as Danny was bidding him farewell Rick asked if Danny had made his decision about going to Tracey’s therapy session.

“Yeah I reckon after I get something to eat I will go.” Danny replied.

He actually hadn’t made up his mind if he was actually going to make the session but he had made up his mind that he was leaving work early. Whether or not he actually made the session was not something he wanted to discuss at that particular time so it was far easier to give Rick the answer he wanted to hear rather than answer truthfully.

Even when Danny climbed into his dual cab ute at fifteen minutes to two o’clock he wasn’t sure that he was headed to the therapy session. The fact that he was at least twenty minutes from the therapists office and would therefore arrive late had him thinking that he wasn’t going to turn up. Heading through the industrial area where the workshop was and catching every set of traffic lights making his trip slower also had him thinking he wouldn’t make it. But there must have been a higher power at play because before he actually realised it he found himself headed in the direction of the therapists office and not in the direction of home.

Not realising he’d unconsciously headed in a direction he wasn’t actually planning to go whilst driving was slightly unnerving for Danny because despite half the drivers on the road seeming to drive that way every day Danny knew better. Danny was trained to be aware of everything on the road around him because even a split second of inattention on the race track could be disastrous, the public roads weren’t quite as dangerous but it was still dangerous and something he chided himself for doing.

Despite paying more attention to the road and the traffic around around him Danny was still somewhat surprised when he pulled into the small car park adjacent to the therapists office which was in fact a residential house converted into several small offices. There was only five car parking spaces in the small car park, one of the was taken up by Tracey’s car and Danny assumed the other car parked there belonged to the therapist.

He sat in the car for a moment thinking about his next step, he knew that driving off was not really an option, especially given that any of the three windows that faced the car park could have been the office Tracey was in, but that wasn’t enough to push him to open the door.

It took him nearly five minutes, by which time he was nearly a full ten minutes later than the schedule starting time Tracey had given him, to open the car door. Getting out of the car and walking across the car park to the front door was as difficult as he expected it to be but he knew he could not turn back, he knew he could not run.

Danny stepped up onto the wooden deck of the veranda and made his way to the door. The house was a old 1940’s style house that had been restored and adapted into several small offices. One of those changes was the gold plaque on the door that told him it was the practising offices of Miss. Francis Wayland, Psychiatrist, Relationship Consultant and Women’s Mental Health Specialist.

“Oh great!” Danny thought as he read the last four words. It was a slightly sexist thought but it was one he couldn’t stop.

Thanks. Some days things work, some days the words come together and some days they make sense. Other days it’s a struggle and it shows in the way things are written. Some days I just waffle on feigning interest because I know the next post/topic is more interesting. Generally unless it’s really bad I post it anyway in the hope that the next post works better.